Nexus approaches to global sustainable development

Liu, Jianguo; Hull, Vanessa; Godfray, H. Charles J.; Tilman, David; Gleick, Peter H.; Hoff, Holger; Pahl‐Wostl, Claudia; Xu, Zhenci; Chung, Min Gon; Sun, Jing; Li, Shuxin

doi:10.1038/s41893-018-0135-8

Cited by 566 publications

(398 citation statements)

References 131 publications

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“…First steps are being taken, such as developing a “water‐sensitive city” in Melbourne (Ferguson et al, ) and efforts toward a closed urban water system in Singapore (Joo & Heng, ). As long as such strategies are developed with a sole focus on the water sector, trade‐offs will remain (e.g., in the water‐energy nexus) that have the potential of constraining the long‐term resilience of such systems (Lenouvel et al, ; Liu et al, ; Romero‐Lankao et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience Dynamics of Urban Water Supply Security and Potential of Tipping Points

et al. 2019

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Cities are the drivers of socioeconomic innovation and are also forced to address the accelerating risk of failure in providing essential services such as water supply today and in the future. Here, we investigate the resilience of urban water supply security, which is defined in terms of the services that citizens receive. The resilience of services is determined by the availability and robustness of critical system elements or “capitals” (water resources, infrastructure, finances, management efficacy, and community adaptation). We translate quantitative information about this portfolio of capitals from seven contrasting cities on four continents into parameters of a coupled system dynamics model. Water services are disrupted by recurring stochastic shocks, and we simulate the dynamics of impact and recovery cycles. Resilience emerges under various constraints, expressed in terms of each city's capital portfolio. Systematic assessment of the parameter space produces the urban water resilience landscape, and we determine the position of each city along a continuous gradient from water insecure and nonresilient to secure and resilient systems. In several cities stochastic disturbance regimes challenge steady‐state conditions and drive system collapse. While water insecure and nonresilient cities risk being pushed into a poverty trap, cities which have developed excess capitals risk being trapped in rigidity and crossing a tipping point from high to low services and collapse. Where public services are insufficient, community adaptation improves water security and resilience to varying degrees. Our results highlight the need for resilience thinking in the governance of urban water systems under global change pressures.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience Dynamics of Urban Water Supply Security and Potential of Tipping Points

et al. 2019

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“…First, with increasing pressures on natural resources, and externalities and trade‐offs between sectors becoming more visible (Al‐Saidi & Elagib, ), the WEF nexus has emerged as an important phenomenon and theme in sustainability (Gallagher et al, ; Liu et al, ). While a vast number of WEF nexus frameworks have emerged within less than a decade, agreement on key ingredients of this socioecological system has not been achieved (Albrecht et al, ; Allan et al, ; Allouche et al, ; Villamayor‐Tomas et al, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Participatory Modeling Updates Expectations forIndividuals and Groups, Catalyzing BehaviorChange and Collective Action inWater‐Energy‐Food NexusGovernance

et al. 2019

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Participatory modeling is a potentially high-impact approach for catalyzing fundamental sustainability transformations. We test if participation in a group system dynamics modeling exercise increases participants' agency through a novel method to evaluate potential behavioral change using expectation measures. A water-energy-food nexus-a functionally interdependent but underconceptualized system with low consensus and high scientific uncertainty-was mapped, and its evolution simulated by 46 participants in three interventions in a region undergoing hydropower infrastructure development in Northeastern Cambodia. Participants' system-related expectations were measured before and after the interventions. Our results suggest that participants became significantly more optimistic about their individual agency to increase agricultural and fishing income and, interestingly, less likely to participate in local government development planning procedures. Findings also reveal how some uncertainties for multiple variables were reduced within and across the groups. Such converging expectations suggest that participatory modeling could contribute to making collective solutions and institutionalized agreements more likely. This research contributes to innovation in sustainability because it unpacks some underlying mechanics of how participatory processes can lead to new adaptive capacities, shared perspectives, and collective actions. Plain Language SummaryOur research contributes to understanding actionable knowledge for sustainability using a before-after intervention with fishing and farming community representatives in a situation of conflicting water, energy, food, and livelihoods priorities in rural Cambodia. We explain why reducing uncertainty and building consensus on action through participatory research could potentially catalyze new behavior that promotes sustainability and test how this happens in our intervention. The result is a new and much needed evaluation framework and method for behavioral change outcomes in sustainability interventions.

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“…As the most fundamental resources of economic and social development [1,2], food, energy, and water are closely interrelated [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. With the growth of the population, urbanization and climate change as well as people's demand growing for food, energy and water, it is estimated that the nine billion people living on earth will need 30% more water, 40% more energy, and 50% more food to survive by 2030 [7,10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal Distribution and the Driving Force of the Food-Energy-Water Nexus Index in Zhangye, Northwest China

et al. 2020

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For more efficient development planning, food-energy-water (FEW) nexus indicators should be provided with higher spatial and temporal resolutions. This paper takes Zhangye, a typical oasis city in Northwest China's arid region, as an example, and uses the unweighted, geometric mean method to calculate a standardized, quantitative, and transparent estimation of the FEW nexus for each county. The role of influencing factors is also analyzed. The results showed that (1) the coordination of the FEW nexus in each county gradually increased from 2005 to 2015. Spatially, the distribution of the FEW nexus showed a tendency to be higher in the southwestern region and lower in the northeastern region. (2) Food security and water security were weaker than energy security. Specifically, there were more limitations to food accessibility, water availability, and water accessibility than for other indexes. (3) The FEW indexes are positively associated with per capita GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and negatively correlated with the average evaporation and altitude of each county (district). Decision makers should concentrate on combining industrial advantages, developing water-efficient ecological agriculture, and improving production quality to increase market competitiveness and should actively explore the international market.Since the Bonn conference of 2011 proposed the food-energy-water (FEW) nexus approach to increase efficiency, reduce trade-offs, build synergies, and improve governance across sectors, the FEW nexus have increasingly drawn worldwide attention [7,13,14]. From that point forward, research on FEW nexus has been reported in great detail. In particular, since 2016, an increasing number of papers related to FEW nexus have been published. There are both qualitative and quantitative studies. In terms of qualitative research, some scholars propose that water, energy, and food interact and have intricate interrelationships [15][16][17]. Some researchers indicate that comprehensive thinking should be used to solve the problems and challenges between FEW and to serve the sustainable development of the social economy and resource environment [14,[18][19][20]. Some scientists compare the functions and deficiencies of the existing nexus modeling methods and aim to enable decision makers to determine the tools that best suit their research needs and goals [6,[21][22][23][24][25]. In quantitative studies, in the aspect of research scale, Willis et al. develop a global Pardee RAND (nonprofit corporation in America at https://www.rand.org/) food-energy-water security index (FEW Index) to provide information for development agencies and others studying food, energy, and water resources [9]. Some scientists try to manage the water-energy-food nexus at the regional scale [11,26]. Some researchers quantify the water-energy-food nexus at the watershed scale [7,8,10,[27][28][29]. Li et al., Bai et al., and Wang et al. analyzed China's water-energy-food nexus at the national scale [2,30,31]. Gondhalekar and Ramsauer operationalize...

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Nexus approaches to global sustainable development

Cited by 566 publications

References 131 publications

Resilience Dynamics of Urban Water Supply Security and Potential of Tipping Points

Resilience Dynamics of Urban Water Supply Security and Potential of Tipping Points

Participatory Modeling Updates Expectations forIndividuals and Groups, Catalyzing BehaviorChange and Collective Action inWater‐Energy‐Food NexusGovernance

Spatiotemporal Distribution and the Driving Force of the Food-Energy-Water Nexus Index in Zhangye, Northwest China

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